The Hard-Place Boy by Tom Dalton

Author:Tom Dalton [Dalton, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-77180-094-5
Publisher: Iguana Books
Published: 2014-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Baywop

Before school started, the dark Whelans, Minnie and Leo, moved into Mother Murphy’s house. Mother Murphy willed the house to Minnie. Minnie said the younger boys, Frank, twelve, and Greg, eight, would benefit from the wholesomeness of the Pinch and getting away from the Sodom and Gomorrah that St. John’s was becoming. Their sister Bridget Whelan stayed in St. John’s with her aunt, and Boland, never wanting to be too close to his mother, moved back to St. John’s and stayed in the St. John’s house with his sisters Loll and Donna. Frank was too old and rough to play with and called the people of Conception Harbour baywops, but was quick to say when around Roady that that didn’t include the people on the Pinch because they wasn’t beside the bay. While Frank was cruel, Greg was the meanest, sookiest baby Michael ever met. Greg ran to his mother at the slightest injury, crying bloody murder, and an eye had to be taken for a scratch. Frank would go to the Convent school and Greg to the Pinch school in grade three. They were his cousins so Michael had no choice about liking them even though they were townies with St. John’s accents.

At the start of grade four, Gordon, Francis and Michael became blood brothers just like Michael was with Jack and Neil. All of the children in grade three had passed to grade four. Mary Murphy and Brian Collins graduated to the Convent. Paul Kane passed into grade three with Cyril and Joey. In class the children learned math, writing, spelling, reading and history. They learned there were Indians on the island of Newfoundland when the white man came. The white men called them Red Indians because they smeared red ochre on their bodies. Their real name was Beothuk. They hunted caribou and seals, fished the salmon and collected bird’s eggs. They made most of their utensils from birch bark and wore the skins of the caribou. When the white men settled the east coast and took over the salmon rivers, the Beothuk were forced to live inland and hunt the caribou year round. Most of the Beothuk died of tuberculosis and starvation. The last one died a long time ago.

Gordon, Francis and Michael became Beothuk and Micmac. They ran around the playing field during recess, chopping off heads right, left and centre. The thought that real Indians had been there in the past, maybe even on the Pinch, was fantastic, and maybe the Beothuk dropped some arrowheads in the woods. The boys searched through all the small paths and woods, keeping their noses to the ground, but found no arrowheads.

They made bows and arrows, found feathers, made headbands and practiced creeping through the woods without making a sound. The best thing was to sneak up behind someone in the bush and take their scalp before they knew what happened.

‘Me Crazy Horse. Did you see when I came up behind, Francis? You didn’t see me, Francis. I got your scalp.

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